T20 World Cup: Zimbabwe coach Dave Houghton targets Super 12s

Published by: Christian Ugwu Oluchi

Zimbabwe lost a warm-up game against Sri Lanka at the famed Melbourne Cricket Ground on Tuesday.

Zimbabwe's cricketers have been urged to seize their chance at the T20 World Cup, with their coach saying his team have every chance of upsetting some of the tournament's more fancied sides.

Appearing at their first global tournament in six years, the Africans face Ireland, the West Indies and Scotland in their first-round group in Australia.

Only the top two will progress to the Super 12 stage of the competition, and Zimbabwe head into their opener on Monday ranked above both European sides in Group B.

"It's unrealistic to think we're going to go on and win this World Cup," coach Dave Houghton told BBC Sport Africa.

"But the great fun about being in these World Cups is the ability to upset some of the big dogs."

The momentum that Houghton has now built as coach after a few difficult years could give the side a chance of a good tournament, if things go their way.

"We have probably got more talent now than we had going back 10-15 years or 20 years when reached our peak around the 1999 World Cup," added Houghton.

"It's an absolute privilege to be here and you just hope we do ourselves justice on the big stage.

"We know what we've got to do - we're here to qualify for the main groups. That pressure was on us before we left home, even without the knowledge of where we are in the rankings.

"These three games that we are playing are games we should win, so let's go out there and play our best cricket."

After spending 42 hours travelling to Australia, Zimbabwe lost a warm-up match to Sri Lanka by 33 runs on Tuesday and face Namibia on Thursday before their opening World Cup tie against Ireland on Monday (08:00 GMT).